Max von Aigner

I never planned to become a software engineer. In fact, I never considered myself "the type" for writing code professionally. In my mind, software engineers excelled in two things: Math and Dungeons & Dragons—neither of which I had any clue about. Math was my worst subject in high school; even the thought of calculus gives me PTSD. As for Dungeons & Dragons, whenever people talk about dungeon masters and six-sided dice, I zone out so completely that you’d need to reanimate me.

Fortunately, I discovered through working in tech that neither math skills nor a passion for D&D are prerequisites for programming. Turns out, computers are quite good with numbers; you just need to tell the machine what to do, also known as "computer programming." And while a passion for D&D can make for great conversation at tech meetups, the software engineering community embraces people with diverse interests—like collecting Lord of the Rings figurines.

So, how did I end up here? Unlike many of my peers from business studies in Austria, I never intended to enter the tech industry. I stumbled into it, and I’m so glad I did. Tech is truly fascinating to me. It's fast-paced, occasionally hectic, and you get to work with cutting-edge technologies. The products you build are infinitely scalable; you write one codebase, and it can be used by billions. That’s incredibly powerful.

My first job in tech was in Customer Experience at the fintech unicorn Lemonade, in Amsterdam. Although it wasn’t a typical tech role, I learned a lot about how product companies operate. The most valuable skill I gained was communication. Interacting with hundreds of thousands of users over the years honed my ability to communicate clearly, efficiently, and empathetically—skills that are crucial in software engineering but often overlooked.

From Customer Experience, I transitioned to Product Management. Leveraging my direct contact with customers and understanding of their needs, I helped build a chatbot system that could be scaled and maintained by non-technical staff, such as Customer Experience Specialists. I found product management fascinating; I loved thinking deeply about user problems and designing smooth, seamless user experiences. I learned so much about software development processes—planning, managing, anticipating pitfalls, and motivating teams when things didn’t go as planned. Prioritizing tasks became second nature; every ten minutes, I’d check if I was working on the most urgent task and adjust if necessary.

Working closely with software engineers in product management piqued my curiosity about their world. It seemed like magic, and I wanted to understand it better. I started dabbling in Python (unsuccessfully at first) and later in JavaScript (more successfully). Eventually, I enrolled in a full-time coding school to learn full-stack web development with a modern tech stack. Writing my first full-stack program, complete with a backend, frontend, and UI I built myself, was a pivotal moment, my “red pill moment” if you will. I felt empowered and hooked. From then on, I was driven to build cooler apps with more features.

Every day I code, I learn and become a better engineer. My ultimate goal is to master it all: Product, Engineering, UI/UX Design, and Product Marketing. I want to take a product from idea to market and navigate all relevant domains myself. Currently, I’m focused on strengthening my engineering skills, and in my side projects, I work on improving my UX/UI skills as well.